Congrats Alykay, sounds like everythings went well. I would love to see pics of your wedding and probe you as it regards the wedding timeline. I also have a time slot of 4pm and trying to figure out how to plan things as everything flows nicely. Did you have a cocktail after the ceremony.

OK so it's been a while since I have posted mainly because I'm so stressed out with the wedding I don't have the time or energy to write. My wedding is November 4, 2011 at Dreams Punta Cana. We originally invited 30 people and only 8 are coming so far. We are still waiting on responses from 4 couples but even if they all come we will only have a total of 16 people (18 including my fiance & I). That being said we are trying to decide if we will do the 3 hour reception or just go with the basic ceremony/cake/champagne toast then go to a dinner at one of the restaurants then just head to the club at the resort. Has anybody or is anybody planning not to have a reception?

For those of you using/used an outside photographer, were they able to come to the resort before the wedding day to meet w/you or did they have to pay a fee to come onto the resort? Also for those of you who have already gotten married there, how was your experience with your wedding coordinator & how did the wedding flow? Was it stressful?

I keep seeing bad reviews online, not only of weddings but just of regular vacations. I'm really starting to worry about choosing this resort. On top of that all of my guests are seeing the bad reviews as well. Their main concerns are the AC issue & the food/digestive problems. For those of you who have been to Dreams before or have already been married there, how true are these reviews? Is it just a few incidents or did you experience the same problems?

I did not read the reviews but my wedding was in June 4th and we had about 35 guests. They had a GREAT time. The only problem was the mosquito bites, they were ruthless. We gave our guests a gift bag which included anti-diarrhea pills. I don't think anyone used them, but my husband during the honeymoon. My husband's grandmother did get a bit sick, but only because everyone including her was eating so much which is different from when ppl are home.

About the reception, yes it is totally possible to have it at the disco tech. We had a reception with 2 hours of dancing. We told everyone to go to the club after, which they all did. It was great. You could totally save money and just go to the disco. I believe it opens at 10:30 though.

We used an outside photographer, Micheal Weiler. We also had the dreams photographer (which was included in our package). It was great to have 2 photographers because they had different techniques on shooting the pics. Micheal came with his brother hours before the wedding. He was able to take pictures of me getting ready. At first I was uneasy about it, but glad I did it. THe pics look great. He was there the entire time I had my hair done. I do believe that Dreams is preventing outside photographers unless they had them booked before Feb. You may want to make sure of this.

I hope this helps.

Originally Posted by Melissa727

*CALLING ALL DREAMS PUNTA CANA BRIDES-I'M FREAKING OUT!*

OK so it's been a while since I have posted mainly because I'm so stressed out with the wedding I don't have the time or energy to write. My wedding is November 4, 2011 at Dreams Punta Cana. We originally invited 30 people and only 8 are coming so far. We are still waiting on responses from 4 couples but even if they all come we will only have a total of 16 people (18 including my fiance & I). That being said we are trying to decide if we will do the 3 hour reception or just go with the basic ceremony/cake/champagne toast then go to a dinner at one of the restaurants then just head to the club at the resort. Has anybody or is anybody planning not to have a reception?

For those of you using/used an outside photographer, were they able to come to the resort before the wedding day to meet w/you or did they have to pay a fee to come onto the resort? Also for those of you who have already gotten married there, how was your experience with your wedding coordinator & how did the wedding flow? Was it stressful?

I keep seeing bad reviews online, not only of weddings but just of regular vacations. I'm really starting to worry about choosing this resort. On top of that all of my guests are seeing the bad reviews as well. Their main concerns are the AC issue & the food/digestive problems. For those of you who have been to Dreams before or have already been married there, how true are these reviews? Is it just a few incidents or did you experience the same problems?

I had some of the same concerns as you did before my wedding on May 5, 2011, but mine were more about the ceremony itself. I had read the negative reviews on TripAdvisor and the like, but I find that most of the reviews are quite polarizing, or just from people that have unrealistic expectations of what their vacation will be - they are typically people that don't travel very much so they have no frame of reference (and this may sound a bit elitist, but I don't think that travelling to an all-inclusive vacation once or twice a year qualifies you as an experienced traveller.)

As for the food it was excellent. So many options for everyone at the buffet and the a la carte restaurants were good, with the Seaside Grill and the Mexican being two of our favourites. Now I don't know what the AC issue is, but when we were there we didn't hear any complaints about that. The only issue that I had been aware of before we went, had to do with a musty odor in some of the rooms - although our feeling was that it was likely the typical musty odor that is usually found in a humid, tropical climates.

There was only one guest that had a complaint about a musty smell in the room - but it was someone that is a known complainer and once they raised the issue to the staff they were moved to another room the next day.

As soon as we arrived our minds were quickly put at ease. We were fortunate to have 42 people, plus me and my fiance that joined us so we had the private reception following our ceremony - we just figured that with people paying at least $1400 per person, the least we could do was treat them to a private dinner (yeah, I know you'll read posts from people that believe they should have to pay, since they already paid the all-inclusive - but we just felt it was the decent thing to do).

After our dinner, we didn't have too much time for a lot of dancing, but rather than pay for the extra time we moved over to the disco, which was great since it gave those that aren't big dancers, or were just tired, the opportunity to head back to their rooms without it being a big deal.

We ended up using an outside photographer, HDC, but you may want to check with your WC to see if the resort will still allow you to do so, since there was some talk a few months again that they weren't going to allow brides to do so unless they had booked their photographer before the end of February. If they do, I can't recommend HDC enough - their work was amazing!!

Hope this helps! J

Originally Posted by Melissa727

*CALLING ALL DREAMS PUNTA CANA BRIDES-I'M FREAKING OUT!*

OK so it's been a while since I have posted mainly because I'm so stressed out with the wedding I don't have the time or energy to write. My wedding is November 4, 2011 at Dreams Punta Cana. We originally invited 30 people and only 8 are coming so far. We are still waiting on responses from 4 couples but even if they all come we will only have a total of 16 people (18 including my fiance & I). That being said we are trying to decide if we will do the 3 hour reception or just go with the basic ceremony/cake/champagne toast then go to a dinner at one of the restaurants then just head to the club at the resort. Has anybody or is anybody planning not to have a reception?

For those of you using/used an outside photographer, were they able to come to the resort before the wedding day to meet w/you or did they have to pay a fee to come onto the resort? Also for those of you who have already gotten married there, how was your experience with your wedding coordinator & how did the wedding flow? Was it stressful?

I keep seeing bad reviews online, not only of weddings but just of regular vacations. I'm really starting to worry about choosing this resort. On top of that all of my guests are seeing the bad reviews as well. Their main concerns are the AC issue & the food/digestive problems. For those of you who have been to Dreams before or have already been married there, how true are these reviews? Is it just a few incidents or did you experience the same problems?

I am using Michael Weiler, and I just booked him like a month ago for my Nov 2012 wedding. Yes, the resort still allows for outside photographers, but as always you just have to pay for them to have a day pass at the resort (I think its $75). Michael Weiler is amazing! My fiance has his own photography business on the side, so he wanted to pick who was going to do our pictures. I showed him a few websites of photographers down there including HDC who I thought was also great, but he liked Michael's work way better. I heard the resort photographer is good but just way expensive. I think in the package (which covers ceremony and a few pictures afterwards) you get 50 photos, but if you want anything more than that they charge you a ton of money.

Thank you all so much for responding, you definitely helped to put my mind at ease. I did confirm a few months ago that Dreams decided not to change the policy and that outside vendors are still allowed. I am using Michael Weiler as well, I booked him a few months ago. All of the photos that I have seen of his are gorgeous! I was aware that we have to pay the day pass fee for him to come the day of the wedding but I wanted to meet with him a day or two before just to discuss what we want done. I didn't know if I would have to pay a fee for him to come to the resort that day or if we would have to go off the resort to meet with him. I guess I can just email Michael and ask him. I'm sure he has done it enough to know! LOL.